Tom FucoloroCity will replace the handmade wood bridge over Missing Path Bog with an actual path + A history of an unstoppable desire line
For more than a year, hundreds if not thousands of people have used a couple wood planks every day to cross a ten-foot gap in the path between Lake Union Park and the endless parking lot along Fairview Ave N that connects South Lake Union and the Eastlake neighborhood. These planks simply appeared one day, seemingly the work of a skilled trail builder, and have since helped countless people cross the sunken and often-muddy gap between the paths in Lake Union Park and the path built to the property line of the adjacent Lake Union Piers. As construction for the RapidRide J project has disrupted the other biking and walking options and has directed street traffic onto the streetcar tracks, this little bridge has served an even more important role to help people move safely through the area. But after more than a year of heavy use, the wood planks had more than served their role and were starting to split. Late last week, Seattle Bike Blog reader Dave spoke with a Seattle Parks Department worker who had removed the wooden bridge and was cutting back vegetation to prepare the site for construction of a proper path. A Seattle Parks spokesperson confirmed that a concrete path will be installed as soon as June 13, though details and timing are still being finalized. The gap has been filled with gravel in the meantime, and people are still biking through. This little path is a fascinating example of the public creating an official pathway out of the sheer force of human movement. The desire line is simply too strong, and no amount of hostility from previous parking lot managers or the Seattle Parks Department itself was able to stop it. Lake Union Park was not designed with a full-sized multi-use trail along this obvious desire line, and Parks is often hostile to the idea of people biking through parks for the purpose of transportation. This gap has long been a popular bike route despite every attempt to stop it. Years ago, bike riders and parking lot managers would play a game where a log might appear blocking the path one day, then mysteriously be moved out of the way the next. […]
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